The History of Antiquity, Vol. 5 (of 6)

530

Ctesias, "Fragm. Pers." 2, 5.

531

Nicol. Damasc. fragm. 66; Ctes. "Fragm. Pers." 2, 5; Tzetz. "Chil." 1, 1, 82 ff.

532

Athen. p. 633; Cic. "de Divin." 1, 23.

533

Justin, 1, 4-7; cf. 44, 4.

534

Polyæn. "Strat." 7, 6; 7, 45. But he also explains the change of fortune at Pasargadae in another way. When Cyrus fled to that place after his retreat, and many Persians deserted to the Medes, he spread abroad a report that on the following day 100,000 enemies of the Medes (Cadusians?) would come to his assistance; every man was to prepare a bundle of faggots for the allies. The deserter told this to the Medes, and when Cyrus in the night caused all the bundles to be lighted, the Medes, thinking that the Persians had received substantial assistance, deserted.

535

Strabo, p. 727, 730. Steph. Byzant. Πασσαργάδαι.

536

"De mulier. virtute," 5.

537

Diod. "Ex. de virt. et vit." p. 552, 553 (= 9, 24); cf. 4, 30.

538

Moses Choren. 1, 24-30, and appendix to the first book, according to Le Vaillant's translation.

539

The form and explanation of the legend of Asdahag in Moses, as well as the mention of Rustem Sakjig, who has the strength of ten elephants (2, 8), i. e. of Rustem of Sejestan, prove that the East-Iranian legend, as we find it in Firdusi, must have been current in Western Iran in the fourth century at the latest, if it came into Armenia in the fifth century. I do not think it probable that Moses took the legend of Tigran from Xenophon's narrative. The vision in a dream and the duel point to Armenian tradition.

540

1, 95.

541

"Cyri Instit." 1, 2, 1.

542

J. Mohl, "Livre des rois," Introd. p. 29.

543

It has been objected to this analysis that the marriage with the heiress may not have conveyed the throne ipso facto to the husband; it may have been open to the chieftains to elect a king out of the members of the royal family. This may be correct for the election of the Afghan chiefs at the present day by the heads of the families. How the succession to the throne was arranged among the Medes we do not know in any detail, or whether their chiefs had any importance at all; but we do see that the crown went from father to son from Deioces downwards. In any case, even under that hypothesis, the husband of the heiress had a nearer claim.

544

Herod. 3, 2. So Deinon and Lyceas of Naucratis in Athenaeus, p. 560.

545

Herod. 1, 207; 3, 75; 7, 11.

546

Cicero, "de Divin." 1, 23.

547

St. Martin on Lebeau, "Bas Empire," 2, 221.

548

"Cyri instit." 7, 3, 24.

549

Above, p. 299 ff.

550

Above, p. 34, 35, 36, 256.

551

Above, p. 110. Cf. Windischmann, "Zoroastrische Studien," s. 277.

552

Nöldeke, "Tabari," p. 12; Karnamak, s. 68.

553

"Politic." 5, 10, 24.

554

If Astyages was married to the daughter of Alyattes in the year 610 B.C. he must have been 18 or 20 years old at that time; between 610 and 558 the year of his fall there are 52 years. Moreover, according to Ctesias, Astyages outlived his fall at least ten years ("Fragm. Pers." 5). If this were the case, and Astyages did not die till 548, he cannot well have been born before 630 B.C. In Herodotus and Pompeius Trogus it is expressly said that Astyages had no son, and this is the motive which induces Harpagus not to put Cyrus to death, as he would in that case expose himself to the vengeance of the mother, the heiress to the throne. In Nicolaus also the daughter comes distinctly forward, and in Ctesias she is also the heiress (e. g. "Pers." 2); in the history of the overthrow and the death of Astyages, we hear of her constantly. At the death of Cyrus, her sons by the first marriage receive satrapies. In Ctesias, it is true, a brother of Amytis is incidentally mentioned, on the occasion of a later war of Cyrus ("Pers." 3). But as Ctesias is here following a Median version, and after the death of Astyages the husband of Amytis and not her supposed brother is removed out of the way, no importance can be attached to this.